The Girls Aloud singer was struck down with the disease after holidaying to Tanzania with her ex Derek Hough in June 2010. She said doctors ordered her to put on weight to help her recovery.
“The malaria ate away at my muscles,” she told InStyle magazine, “but let’s not get grim. It opened my eyes to health and things I hadn’t focused on before. It’s now less about work, work, work and more about making time to chill and be with my friends and family.
“I had to take good care of myself and I was told to stop exercising and to gain weight to get well. I just ate everything.”
Talking about her seven tattoos, the Three Words singer said she sees them as ‘art’ and wants a full-back one.
“They are addictive, they really are,” she said. “If it was up to me – and I could be brave for one day – I would have my whole back done. My friends say ‘Cheryl, please, you might regret it’, but to me, it’s art.”